Cloning is a form of plant propagation that has been around for a very long time. It's basically taking a growing portion of a plant—a stem with some leaves attached, and helping it to become a brand new plant that is genetically identical to the plant from which the clone was taken. This is often easy to do because plants often clone themselves in nature. It's called asexual reproduction. The methods currently used today include taking cuttings, layering, division, grafting, budding and tissue culture. Gardeners often trade cuttings and divisions as a way of sharing plants with their friends.
Experiments show that by starting the feeding immediately after the first roots emerge, immunization and seedling strength are increased and young plants experience minimal shock. In addition, experiments show that providing the growing chamber with a mixture of oxygen and solution under slight pressure, and at any selected temperature assists in proper growth of the cloned plants. By misting roots and cuttings, instead of spraying or irrigating, the water is broken down to nearly its molecular level, thereby carrying more oxygen with the solution to the cutting and making absorption easier and minimizing the risk of mold or rotting.
There are a number of devices conceived to assist growers, both home growers as well as commercial growers, to better automate and control sprouting seeds or cloning plants.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,892 entitled “Automatic Sprouter System” which issued on Sep. 3, 2002 to the present inventor, and is commonly owned by the applicant of the present application, provides a misting automatic sprouter system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,671 entitled “Apparatus for Growing Bean Sprouts” which issued on May 20, 1979 to Lee discloses a self watering apparatus including a housing divided into an upper and a lower compartment by a horizontal divider plate having orifices therethrough. A tilting water container is used to periodically supply water to plants in the upper compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,367 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Germinating Seed Sprouts” which issued on Feb. 5, 1991 to Chung discloses accelerated sprouting of bean sprouts by placing said sprouts in a closed vessel on a screen. The seeds are soaked with water and additives and humidified air is blown through at periodic intervals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,589 entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Growing Bean Sprouts” which issued on Jun. 25, 1991 to Park discloses a series of vertical beds having bean sprouts growing therein organized in order of size with the largest at the top. Water cascades downward through the beds at periodic intervals.
However, there is still a need for an apparatus for use by the home owner or small commercial concern which is fully automatic until harvest with no human touch. In addition, the prior art teaches that water with some air circulation provides the best combination for cloning. However, new research indicates that maximizing the air with a minimum amount of water makes for better clones with a minimal risk of contamination by molds and the like. Further, some commercial units employ misting systems which generally involve forcing water through small pores. However, such misting systems do not mix air with the water but use water pressure to create mist via a nozzle system which does not introduce clean air from outside the growing compartment. This air that is trapped within the growing compartment can be contaminated with bacteria and recirculation increases the chances of contamination. In addition, the small pores plug after a period of use. Thus, there is a need to provide a cloning system which does not employ irrigating or misting with pores systems. The present invention meets these needs.
None of the known prior art disclose the device set forth herein.